Reserve Bank of India in Discussions with Global Regulators and Banks Over Mythos Market Risks

India's Central Bank Discusses Risks of Anthropic's AI Model Mythos

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is engaged in talks with global regulators, Indian lenders, and government officials to assess the potential risks posed by Anthropic's new artificial intelligence model, Mythos. According to three sources familiar with the central bank's thinking, RBI's preliminary assessment suggests that Mythos could pose cybersecurity risks by accelerating the discovery and exploitation of software vulnerabilities.

Regulators in Asia, Europe, and the United States have warned banks to review their defenses and preparedness in response to the potential risks associated with Mythos. In Japan, the financial watchdog will meet with banks this week, while the Australian central bank is monitoring Mythos-related developments. RBI officials have held consultations with counterparts at the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England over the past fortnight to discuss Mythos-related risks.

The RBI may seek direct engagement with Anthropic to address concerns about the model's potential risks. India's payment authority, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), is attempting to secure early access to Mythos alongside a small number of banks to identify vulnerabilities and "day-zero" cyber risks ahead of any broader rollout.

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However, access to Mythos may be limited due to its hosting on strictly-controlled servers in the U.S. and the challenges of running tests on local data in foreign jurisdictions. Anthropic has limited access to Mythos to a small number of organizations involved in maintaining key digital infrastructure in the U.S., but plans to provide access to European banks soon, according to Reuters.

The RBI is preparing broader guidelines for banks entering enterprise partnerships with advanced AI models, including Mythos and Anthropic's Claude family, as part of a longer-term strategy on AI adoption. The central bank will insist that all analytics based on data of Indian customers comply with RBI's domestic data localisation rule, which requires all payment system providers in India to store end-to-end transaction data exclusively on servers located within India. This rule was issued in 2018.

Comparison of Regulatory Responses to Mythos

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The discussions between RBI and global regulators are at an early stage, but the central bank will insist on compliance with its domestic data localisation rule to ensure the security of Indian customers' data.